India beat Sri Lanka in the gold-medal match. (Pic credit: BCCI Women)
NEW DELHI: Harmanpreet Kaur-led India opened their gold medal account at the Asian Games 2026 on Tuesday, defeating Sri Lanka in the women’s cricket final at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin to end the country’s wait for a top-podium finish in Aichi-Nagoya. The men’s competition will begin later in the Games, with the Shreyas Iyer-led Indian side scheduled to start their campaign in the second quarterfinal on September 28. On Day 2, Himanshu Dhillon won silver and Rudrankksh Patil bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle individual event. Dhillon finished second behind China’s Olympic champion Sheng Lihao, who successfully defended his Asian Games title with 254.2 points, while Patil secured bronze with 230.9. India’s other Day 2 medal came from Suchika Tariyal, who made history by becoming the country’s first Asian Games medallist in mixed martial arts. She was awarded bronze after her semifinal against Singapore’s Hui Hoon Teo ended in a draw, with Teo advancing under the competition’s tie-break rule after Suchika was around 700 grams heavier at the morning weigh-in. Valarivan shot 252.4 in the final, finishing behind Japan’s Hinata Taichi, who won gold with a Games-record 253.0. South Korea’s Ban Hyojin took bronze with 230.4.
India are also the defending men’s Asian Games champions. India had entered Tuesday’s cricket final with six medals from the first two days of competition — four silver and two bronze — with shooting accounting for five of them. Dhillon and Patil then combined with Parth Mane to claim another silver in the men’s 10m air rifle team event, taking India’s shooting haul to five medals.